Decent Work and Development Policies

Welcoming the shift to outcomes which he perceives in the ILO\u27s focus on decent work, the author explores the major issues thus raised. He discusses how to make the notion of decent work more precise in operational terms, and how to develop an integrated approach to economic and social policy in the decent work context, before formulating an empirical approach to assessing the effects of economic growth on decent work. Finally, he outlines a structure for the ILO\u27s planned country reviews of progress towards decent work

Local Economic Development Policies

This chapter seeks to provide useful advice for local government policy towards economic development programs. The chapter: reviews the size and scope of local economic development programs in the United States; critically analyzes the various rationales offered for these programs; makes recommendations for what local policy should do about business attraction and incentives, business retention, new business development, high technology development, brownfield development, distressed neighborhoods, and downtowns; and discusses how local economic development programs should be organized, managed, and evaluated.local, regional, economic, development, Bartik, Upjohn

Sustainable Development Policies in Europe

The objective of this paper is to investigate the actual situation in the shift towards the implementation of Sustainable Development Policies in Europe. The aim is to highlight the key role of the European Union in bringing about sustainable development within Europe and also on the wider global stage. It will show how the European Commission performs its commitment in reaching a sustainable regulation by issuing some documents and declarations. The paper frames the EU action into an international framework of strategies, agreements and policies on SD and, at the same time, provides an overview on experiences of SD strategy implementations at the national level, according to the commission pressing on MS to produce their own SD strategy and implement it. Indicators systems, issues of interest and fields of actions are compared: the analysis of these elements aims to highlight common scenarios of SD strategies that reveal the trends towards a more sustainable growth in the European Union.Sustainable Development, Globalization, Environment Policy, Strategy for Sustainable Development, Good Governance, Participation

Entrepreneurship and regional development policies

Many national, regional or local agencies have created policies to directly support entrepreneurs so as to increase the number of businesses or aid the competitiveness and expansion of existing small firms both generally. This paper considers what is meant by the term entrepreneurship and the implications of these meanings for different policies to promote entrepreneurship. These include predominantly macro-level policies such as economic stability, taxation and regulations, together with regional and local policies focusing upon advice, training, finance, technology transfer, markets access, physical infrastructure and the characteristics of the locality.

Productive Development Policies in Argentina

In contrast to the limited impact of aggregate-level productive development policies (PDPs) in Argentina, micro-level PDPs in several sectors have proven highly successful. This study seeks to understand how these PDPs succeeded in a challenging environment, what kinds of mechanisms were generated to ensure adaptation and learning, and how these PDPs evolved. Of importance is not only policy design and implementation, but also the policymaking. Following a historical overview of PDP in Argentina, the paper presents three case studies: i) the Argentine Technology Fund (FONTAR), a horizontal PDP; ii) the National Institute of Agricultural Technology (INTA), a vertical PDP; and iii) the application of both horizontal and vertical PDPs to the biotechnology sector. Lessons learned and conclusions are presented in a final section.Productive Development Policies, Industrial Policy, Policymaking, Argentina

Rural Development Policies and Agricultural Adjustment

Agricultural and Food Policy, Community/Rural/Urban Development,

The promise of asset-development policies

What are asset-development policies? What programs are underway to explore such policies? Larry Beeferman of the Asset Development Institute describes the movement and his views on why asset-development policies are vital to economic equality.Saving and investment ; Individual development accounts

European Regional Development Policies: History and Current Issues

The objective of this paper is to demonstrate that the European regional development funds do not allow simultaneous achievement of goals of efficiency and equity when they are dedicated to financing transportation infrastructures. The paper first gives some insights on the history and the nature of regional development funds. Then we focus on the degree to which Ireland, Spain and Portugal (but not Greece), the main beneficiaries of regional policies, have been able to move to the European average (in terms of per capita income) since their membership in the EU, which also corresponds to the time when regional assistance was initiated in these countries. Empirical evidence also reveals that income disparities are increasing among regions within each of these countries and this raises the question as to whether the impact of regional funds is or is not rather favorable to this particular convergence pattern, given that one of the primary objectives of regional funding has been to ensure greater cohesion over the whole European territory. The answer comes mainly from the type of infrastructure regional funds finance. Since a significant part of regional funds is devoted to transportation issues, their impact on regional development has to be seen in the light of characteristics of the transport sector and the specific requirements in transport of each individual sector. The paper concludes that transportation infrastructures promote the country's aggregate growth but cannot be seen as an efficient instrument to reduce interregional disparities in Europe.published or submitted for publicatio

Sustainable Development in Southern Africa: Progress in Addressing the Challenges

This paper reviews the progress made in establishing institutional framework for sustainable development in Southern Africa, identifies the major successes and challenges in implementing sustainable development policies and programs and suggests recommendations to enhance implementation of sustainable development policies and programs

An end to Nordic exceptionalism? Europeanisation and Nordic development policies

The Nordic countries have traditionally been praised for their generous and advanced development policies. Recently, however, it has been claimed that the Nordic model has faded: that the Nordic donors have become more similar to other European donors. One possible reason for such trends is influences from EU policies, that is, Europeanisation. This article critically evaluates such claims by presenting arguments for and against Europeanisation effects. We argue that changes have indeed taken place. The Nordic exceptionalism has been eroded. At the same time, a convergence of European aid policies has occurred. The question is if this is the consequence of Europeanisation – or is it rather a result of Nordicisation (the Nordic countries influencing the EU), or perhaps like-mindisation (a broader set of progressive member states having impact upon EU policies)? We suggest that Europeanisation has been extremely weak while there is strong evidence of Nordicisation but also, and increasingly, of like-mindisation. Today, a core group of mainly northern member states, including the Nordics, are the main driving forces behind European aid convergence